"The Frighteners" is really a good ghost story, not a horror movie. This is really a watchable 'popcorn' kind of fantasy movie, where the humor is raked up in dark devilish, sometimes stupid jokes. This combination of Robert Zemeckis and Peter Jackson is fantastic. This movie is an odd blend of outright comedy and supernatural thriller. Plot essential has Michael J. Fox as a psychic who really can see dead people, so much so in fact that he has befriended three ghosts and makes a living out of setting up hauntings and charging people to exorcise the spirits. However, things turn decidedly deadly when he encounters a grim reaper like spirit that is killing people and putting a number on their foreheads. It seems there is a serial killing spirit on the loose, played by Jake Busey. This movie has a terrific cast with an outstanding acting performance overall. It's also not surprising that "The Frighteners" has become a cult movie of some standing. The bonkers plot, the close to the knuckle humour and narrative make it a fascinating viewing experience. Find the time and watch this movie. You will not be disappointed.

The characters played by Jeffrey Combs and Julianna McCarthy go down in film history as two of the most delightfully bizarre characters you'll ever see in a film, and it's truly a delightful surprise to see the kindly matriarch Elizabeth Foster Brooks from "The Young and the Restless" playing such a delightfully hideous mother. Wearing a wig that resembles the older Vlad the Impaler in "Bram Stoker's Dracula", McCarthy is manipulating daughter Dee Wallace over a family secret that has brought on demons to haunt her, and other mystical creatures, the demons that appear throughout the film are indeed the scariest. The actual ghosts that are in Michael J. Fox's mine are simply trying to recapture some of their life, whether enjoying the foods they loved, the spouse they adored, an apparently wronged judge, and in the case of a very militant marine officer, keep all the ghosts in line.

While this is more about the special effects and photography and Danny Elfman's magical score, the story is quite interesting with box able to see dead people because of a car accident that he was in that killed his wife. Now Fox communicates with the living whom the dead want to contact and this of course has him branded as a fraud. Everywhere he goes, he gets into trouble because of this magical power with security guards in the Museum of Natural History wanting to shoot him to shoot him on sight.

An absolutely delightful combination of horror, science fiction fantasy, romance and comedy, this is a surprising find for me as I had somehow missed even hearing about it. Fox gets one of his last great roles, feisty and strange and romantic and funny. With the Danny Elfman score, you'd think that this is a Tim Burton film as it does possess the magical impact of Burton at his best, but it was Peter Jackson behind the director's chair. Trini Alvarado is a great heroine, and the voices of the ghosts ( including John Astin as the judge) are letter perfect. "The Frighteners" is a positively perfect title because like any good horror film, you find yourself laughing at your reaction to the frights, and I also experienced practically every other emotion other than the feeling of anger having wasted my time. This absolutely was not a waste of my time.